Letters of Edward FitzGerald, in Two Volumes. Vol. 2FitzGerald, Edward
General
Letters of Edward FitzGerald, in Two Volumes. Vol. 2
FitzGerald, Edward
Authors, English -- 19th century -- Correspondence; FitzGerald, Edward, 1809-1883 -- Correspondence
As to the publication of my name, I believe I could well dispense with
it, were it other and better than it is. But I have some unpleasant
associations with it: not the least of them being that it was borne,
Christian and Surname, by a man who left College just when I went there.
{326} . . . What has become of him I know not: but he, among other
causes, has made me dislike my name, and made me sign myself (half in
fun, of course), to my friends, as now I do to you, sincerely yours
(THE LAIRD OF) LITTLEGRANGE,
where I date from.
_To C. E. Norton_.
_March_ 7, [1882].
MY DEAR NORTON,
You will receive by Post a volume of Translation of Dante's Inferno by
Musurus Pasha into Modern Greek. I was so much interested in a quotation
from it in our 'Academy' that I bought it for myself, and subsequently
thought that a copy might be acceptable to you, loving both Greek and
Dante as you do. Had not I bidden the London Publishers to send it
direct to you, I should have written your name and my own on the
fly-leaf. But you can do this for us both.
I have not as yet read much of it: for my Eyes are impatient of the Greek
letter; but the Language comes out before me as the worthiest
representative of the Italian: provided it be pronounced as we have
learned to pronounce it, not as the modern Greek man is said to do. I
always maintain that a Language is apt to sound better from a Foreigner,
who idealises the pronunciation. As to the structure of the language, I
doubt that I may prefer the modern to the ancient because of being
cleared of many [Greek text], etc., particles. I think I shall send a
Copy to Professor Goodwin. This is nearly all that I have to send across
the Atlantic to-day, which reminds me that I have just been quoting (in a
little thing {327} I may send you),
The fleecy Star that bears
Andromeda far off Atlantic Seas.
What a Line!
. . . It is, I think, worth your while to look at Dean Stanley's Volume
of Bishop Thirlwall's Letters; nay, even Dean Perowne's earlier volume,
if but to show how the pedantic Boy grew into the large-hearted Man, and
even Bishop: but, from the first, always sincere, just, and not
pretentious. I remember him at Cambridge: he, Fellow and Tutor, and I
undergraduate: and he took a little fancy to me, I think.
_To Hallam Tennyson_. {328}
WOODBRIDGE. _May_ 28 [1882].
MY DEAR HALLAM,
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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